Shepshed – Jimmy Nail’s finest hour
February 16, 2008
Remembered by Terry Bland
It became a ritual. Every Wednesday at 10.30pm we’d turn the dial to ITV and gather to watch the latest episode of Shepshed, each with a pie and mix (chips and mushy peas – ed) and a can of dab (dandelion and burdock) in homage to the show’s eponymous hero. DI Den Shepshed seemed to crack the majority of his cases within the walls of the chippy owned by his best friend and former army colleague Patrick ‘Patch’ Harrogate and therein lay much of the charm. Shepshed was a copper you could believe in and for two brief series we followed his every adventure, rooting for him in the will they/won’t they relationship with classy solicitor and aristocrat Lady Petronella ‘Nellie’ Thurrock and delighting in his down-to-earth ways.
The show was created in 1988 by Joe Harvey, the man behind the anthropomorphic Vietnam War cartoon Apocalypse Cow, the controversial kids’ classic that attracted criticism both for racism and bovine irresponsibility at the height of the BSE crisis.
The rumours, still sometimes dug up and given a fresh airing on the numerous fan forums, are that Harvey hated his leading man Jimmy Nail and wanted to replace him with John Nettles. Both Harvey and Nail deny this and happily worked together again in the late nineties for the Shepshed series of audiobooks. However, it is true that Harvey broke Nail’s nose during on-set sparring shortly after the star had joked about the time he ‘accidentally’ slept with the creator’s wife. The actual number of people Nail, and indeed Harvey, ‘accidentally’ slept with during the production is unknown but it is perhaps significant that for the audiobooks replacements had to be found for Stella Gonet as Nellie and Michael Praed as Patch.
Shepshed’s passionate quest for justice caused friction with his boss, Chief Inspector Bernard Cleethorpes played by Roland Curram owner of, at the time, the third best moustache on British television. Shepshed battled various adversaries from video pirates to cod smugglers culminating in a massive sting operation in the final episode. A rival shop to Patch’s had opened up and was offering more than just fish and chips. Knocked-off copies of Ghostbusters 2 were being sold along with illegal cod from shifty Icelandic fishermen. Shepshed’s victory and injury in the line of duty (his hand was thrust into batter and then hot fat) earned him a medal and promotion. The show ended with Shepshed proposing to Nellie. An answer was never given as producers hoped for a third series. The audiobooks assure us, however, that the two married and spent many happy years together.
Harvey faced criticism that all the characters seemed to be named at random from the AA Road Atlas, and that his plots were farcical and inconsequential featuring ridiculous dialogue and bizarre racial stereotyping (especially toward Icelandic people for an unspecified reason). However, Shepshed for all its faults was sheer fun and excitement exploring areas that other police procedurals have never patrolled, before or since. Surely it is time that someone dug into the vaults and transferred this treasure to DVD?
May 30, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Dear Terry
I look forward to the return of Shepshed to DVD. Your recollections of the fish and chip shop episodes and Shepsheds Icelandic fisherman foes reminded me strongly of the sixties Norwegian actor Lars Thighbjold. Lars was recruited into the world of sixties Brit cinema owing to an increase in the demand for roughshod actors able to pull of a convincing Northern Brit accent, spurred by the increase in popularity and success of the sixties Kitchen Sink drama.
Lars’s exposure enabled him to find consistent work over the next decade, as a rent-a-villain in seventies cop shows such as the Sweeney and Mind that Whistle.
A recent search of my local media archive turned up this article and review of Lars’s only starring role and early jaunt into British cinema.
That Was the Fish that Was / Salmon Sunday;
Geordie ‘the gills’ Gudgeon – Lars Thighbjold
The Old Trout - Dora Bryan
Ruby Wrasse - Rita Tushingham
Claws ‘the crab’ Crawley - Alec Guiness
Fishy Customer - Michael Elphick
This lost gem, from gay Scottish director Hamish McGirley, tells the story of Grimsby’s fish focused community during the sixties era. The tale is woven through the eyes of Geordie ‘the gills’ Gudgeon who rises through a career as a dockworker, to self-employment at his own thriving fishmongers on Grimsby’s notoriously competitive Cod Row.
The production was set to contend with the starkness of Alan Sillitoe’s Nottinghamshire and the bleak kitchen sink genre cemented by such masterpieces as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Grimsby’s landscape was an ideal choice of set piece for such a contender but the talented Norwegian actor in the central role, Lars Thighbjold, lost out to the more bankable British talents of the era.
Tom Courtenay was originally approached for the role of Geordie, but was running all over the Midlands at the time, Albert Finney was also contacted, but he was in the West End and wasn’t coming out.
Whilst McGirley brought his superb cast together in a compelling net of thrashing desperation, against Grimsby’s docklands and bustling markets, this fishy tale never quite got beyond its working title and suffered from lack of promotion and a failed distribution deal.
Sixties cinema enthusiasts will note that Salmon Sunday is probably the sole opportunity to watch Alec Guinness master a gravely Yorkshire accent on-screen.
Scene 1
The camera pans over the early morning docklands coming to life, here a seaweed strewn pontoon, there a half-sunken fishing vessel. Immense gulls screech as the camera zooms down upon Geordie and his crew, unloading a fresh catch from an aged vessel, within the misty gloom.
Scene 2
Geordie rants to Claws ‘the Crab’ Crawley as they crouch over two formidable looking pints in The Daft Dolphin. The Old Trout bleats and sobs in the corner whilst a downtrodden Ruby Wrasse serves up the fetid ale, and swaps insults with the unshaven husks of the dockworkers and fishing crews.
Geordie:
‘Acchh, whats it for, acchh for all ‘uz the world, ahs luggin’ aver the auld dock from four in t ’mornin until way after darkness. Un all ahs git is three jars a this cursed puke’? What’s it for Crabs?
Crawley
Acchh, Geordie, Geordie, ahs known thee since thee were a lad and thas always been the green around thas gills. Thas to dae what thas gannae dae or thas be done…………………..laddie.
Reeling from Crabs’ wisdom (or from Ruby’s ale) Geordie later steps into his shack after avoiding the piles of dried fish guts strewn around outside, he vows that tomorrow will be his last day on the docks.
Scene 3
After some misadventure involving the town police, the innkeeper of the Daft Dolphin and a mysteriously absent shipment of gourmet mussels, we find Geordie no longer a loader at the docks but master of his own destiny, elbowing for business among the fishmongers of Grimsby’s Cod Row.
The camera pans slowly along the rows of glistening fresh fish on their icy beds, their sightless, vacant eyes stare out of the cinema screen, as if challenging the viewer on why they should be spending time with Geordie on his fruitless quest, because he is still not happy.
The camera comes to rest at the end of the fishy line on a large pink lobster, Geordie is then on screen working to get today’s special offer tickets wedged into the unlucky lobsters inanimate claws,
Crawley lurks at the tea station nearby, whilst a worn looking shopper with hooks for hands and a huge fisherman’s hat ambles among the goods.
Geordie:
‘Acchh, whats it for, acchh for all ‘uz the world, ahs layin’ out these poor deed fishy blighters for t’eatin morning, noon and night. Un all ahs git is barely enuff sheckles as to treat Ruby to jar o’ the auld cockles at piccies? What’s it for Crabs?
Crawley
Acchh, Geordie, Geordie, yers one a those lads t’aint never gonna be ‘appy as yer. Yers a got one a them black clouds hangin over yers poor heed since ahs known yer as a lad an no mistaken. Ahs ter thinking that yers not be ‘appy until yer like one a them poor deed fishy blighters away oondar that counter thar……………….laddie
Indeed. Crawley’s observations again launch Geordie towards dangerous introspection. The camera sees him making meticulous preparations for a fishing trip and kissing Ruby Wrasse goodbye.
Final Scene
The camera pans back along the mudded estuary to rest on Geordie at sunset, seated on an ironbridge, fishing rod in hand. The world is silent and the fishing vessels and cargo ships silhouetted upon the North Sea horizon are still. The gigantic gulls begin to peck and squabble over Geordies’ leftover fish and chips discarded, beside him on the bridge. He leaves them to it.
The soundtrack soars as Geordie plunges into the rust coloured torrent of the outgoing tide. He disappears with a plop, but in the last camera shot the viewer perceives a pinkish silvery flicker of a large Salmon in the estuary, as large as a man. The Salmon boldly makes it way upstream, inland, to meet the love of its’ life.
Fade Out.
Thanks for the reminder Terry, let’s have potatoes sometime.
Victor